Page 11 - Agriculture Economy

Farmers body AIKCC urges state govts to frame comprehensive agri policy

Farmers body All India Kisan Coordination Committee on Wednesday asked state governments to formulate a comprehensive 'agriculture policy' in the interest of farmers and maintain the policy consistency for a minimum period. Farmers body All India Kisan Coordination Committee (AIKCC) discussed the issue during a two-day brainstorming session organised in memory of late Sharad Joshi, a prominent farmers leader and founder of Shetkari Sanghatana. "More than 60 per cent of India's population depends on agriculture for their livelihood, yet many states lack their own agricultural policies, leading to conflicts between the Centre and states on various issues," AIKCC Chairman and former Rajya Sabha MP Bhupinder Singh Mann said in a statement. AIKCC emphasised the importance of maintaining policy consistency for a minimum period to boost agricultural exports and prevent frequent policy changes that harm farmers the most. Binod Anand, Vice Chairman of AIKCC, emphasised the strategic need fo

Centre okays Rs 14,000-crore for 7 new schemes to boost farmer income

Seven new schemes aim to leverage technology, crop science in agri sector

Paddy acreage surpasses normal levels, reaching 40.87 million hectares

Overall, till August 30 kharif crops have been sown in around 108.73 million hectares which was almost 2 per cent more than the same period last year

India's agriculture growth dips in Q1 as heatwave stings crop output

Low post-monsoon rains, which dried most of the reservoirs in several states across the country, also impacted the production of many crops

Canada's Vitera invests Rs 250 cr in Karnataka's Vijayapura for agriculture

Vitera, a leading Canadian agricultural product manufacturing company, has invested Rs 250 crore to develop agricultural infrastructure in Vijayapur district in Karnataka, state Minister M B Patil said on Friday. Vitera made this capital investment decision during a meeting with the Minister held here today. Vitera's investment will help reduce post-harvest losses faced by farmers by building state-of-the-art cold storage facilities for the agricultural community in Vijayapur district, thereby enhancing the efficiency of the production, supply, and sale of agricultural products, Patil who holds medium and large industries portfolio, said in a statement. The company will utilise advanced manufacturing technology to achieve this, he added. Patil also mentioned that the use of modern Canadian agricultural technology, along with this capital investment, will increase agricultural production, thereby boosting the overall economy of the state.

'Huge potential to increase agri collaboration between India, Africa'

Large arable land in the African continent offers huge scope for collaboration between India and Africa in the agriculture sector, BRICS Agri Business Council Vikramjit Singh Sahney has said. He said that Africa can be a reservoir for the supply of pulses, oilseeds and other agri products like millets. "There is large arable land still unutilised in Africa which can be put to fertile use through agri inputs and India can help develop the whole Agri Value chain in various African countries," he added. Sahney, who is also a Rajya Sabha member from Punjab, said this while addressing a session on India-Africa Business Conclave here on August 22. He also highlighted that the manufacturing growth and services sector can be a game changer for Africa's youth which has got the world's largest young population. Sahney added that India can also help various startups in Africa in cities like Lagos, Nairobi and Cape Town which are hubs of becoming startup capitals. Emphasising the importance

Union govt urges states to adopt new tech initiatives for better farm data

Agriculture Secretary Devesh Chaturvedi on Thursday urged states to swiftly adopt and implement new technology-driven initiatives to improve farm production estimates and enhance data accuracy. Addressing a national conference here, Chaturvedi emphasised the need for continuous collaboration between the central and state governments to enhance the quality of agricultural statistics, an official statement said. The new initiatives include the Digital Crop Survey, Digital General Crop Estimation Survey (DGCES), and the revamped FASAL (Forecasting Agricultural Output using Space, Agro-meteorology, and Land-based Observations) programme. The Digital Crop Survey is designed to provide plot-level data with geotagged areas of crops, serving as a single source of truth for accurate crop area estimation. DGCES aims to calculate yield based on scientifically designed Crop Cutting Experiments for all major crops across the country. The revamped FASAL programme leverages remote sensing techno

PM Modi to release 109 high yielding, climate resilient varieties of crops

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will release 109 high yielding, climate resilient and biofortified varieties of crops at Indian Agricultural Research Institute here on Sunday, according to an official statement. The prime minister will also interact with farmers and scientists during the event, the statement said. The 109 varieties of 61 crops to be released include 34 field crops and 27 horticultural crops, it added. Among the field crops, seeds of various cereals, including millet, forage crops, oilseeds, pulses, sugarcane, cotton, fibre and other potential crops will be released, the statement said. Among the horticultural crops, different varieties of fruits, vegetable crops, plantation crops, tuber crops, spices, flowers and medicinal crops will be released, it added. Prime Minister Modi has always encouraged sustainable farming and adoption of climate resilient methodologies, the release said. He has also emphasised on promoting biofortified varieties of crops by linking them

Uttar Pradesh govt set to launch Rs 4,000 cr agriculture business project

The project is estimated to benefit a million farmers, including 30 per cent of the rural women associated with agri self help groups (SHGs)

Draft policy proposes easier lending, new mandis for FPOs; Is it enough?

India has over 24,000 functional FPOs established under the Companies Act as of March 31, 2023, with many of them being set up in recent years under the Central scheme to promote and form 10,000 FPOs

Centre to invest Rs 18,000 crore to build agri-export clusters: Chouhan

Opposition Congress accuses Centre of misleading Parliament on the MSP issue

Viksit Bharat needs a new paradigm: Reforming the thinking behind policy

The time has come to imagine the contours of a new paradigm of progress

Agriculture at the centre of India's economic policies, says PM Modi

He also mentioned a big focus on sustainable and climate-resilient farming in this year's budget, as well as developing a complete ecosystem to support India's farmers

India food surplus; working to provide solutions for food security: PM

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said India has become a food surplus country and is working to provide solutions for global food and nutritional security. Addressing a gathering after inaugurating the 32nd International Conference of Agricultural Economists (ICAE), which is being organised in India after 65 years, the Prime Minister also said the Union Budget 2024-25 focuses on sustainable agriculture. Noting that the last time when the conference was hosted here, India had just achieved Independence, and it was a challenging time for the country's agriculture and food security. "Now, India is a food surplus country," he said, adding that the country is the number one producer of milk, pulses and spices in the world. Also, the country has become the second-largest producer of foodgrains, fruits, vegetables, cotton, sugar and tea. "There was a time when India's food security was a concern for the world. Now, India is working to provide solutions for global food security an

Being 'anti-farmer' is in DNA of Congress: Agri min Shivraj Singh Chouhan

Being 'anti-farmer' is in the DNA of Congress, said Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Friday as he took on opposition parties for accusing the Modi government of working against the interest of the farm sector. Replying to a discussion on the working of his ministry in the Rajya Sabha, the Union minister said the central government increased the budget outlay for the sector many-fold in the last 10 years from 2013-14. He said farmers are getting fertilisers at highly subsidised prices and will continue to get the farm nutrients at low prices. "Being anti-farmer is in the DNA of Congress. Priorities of Congress have been misplaced since the beginning," Chouhan said while highlighting the works done by the Modi government in the crucial agriculture sector. On the other hand, he said, the current government has set six priorities, including increasing farm production, reducing input cost, providing remunerative prices and adequate relief in case of calamities. The ministe

Godrej Agrovet Q1 results: PAT up 28.3% at Rs 135 cr, total revenue falls

Godrej Agrovet's total revenue from operations fell 6.4 per cent to Rs 2,351 crore while total expenses fell nearly 8 per cent, led by a fall in the cost of materials consumed

Crops expected to get higher rainfall over remainder of Monsoon season

Showers in July were 9 per cent above average at 305.8 millimeters

Govt provided Rs 37,000 cr fertiliser subsidy till July 22: Minister Patel

The government has provided nearly Rs 37,000 crore fertiliser subsidy so far this fiscal to ensure adequate supply of crop nutrients to farmers at affordable prices, Parliament was informed on Friday. In a written reply to the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilizers Anupriya Patel said, "The government provides subsidy to ensure adequate availability of fertilisers at affordable prices to the farmers. Under 'DBT in Fertilizers' system, 100 per cent subsidy on various fertiliser grades is released to the fertiliser companies, on actual sales to the beneficiaries based on Aadhar authentication through POS (point-of-sale) devices installed at each retail shop." She provided details of fertiliser subsidy provided by the government since the 2010-11 fiscal. According to the data, the total fertiliser subsidy stood at Rs 36,993.39 crore till July 22 of the 2024-25 fiscal. In the previous financial year, the subsidy has gone down to Rs 1,95,420.51 crore from Rs 2,54,798

Budget proposals for marine sector to boost India's aquaculture: MPEDA

Budget announcements for the marine sector such as rationalisation of customs duties and financing facilities will help boost the country's India's aquaculture and seafood exports, MPEDA said on Thursday. The Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) also said the Budget includes a range of strategic measures aimed at bolstering the competitiveness of marine products, with a particular focus on shrimp production and export. Various inputs used in the manufacture of shrimp and fish feed will now enjoy customs duty exemptions, it said adding a number of feed inputs such as mineral and vitamin pre-mixes, krill meal, fish lipid oil, crude fish oil, algal prime, algal oil are fully exempted from any import duty. Artemia and Artemia cysts which are key nutritional inputs in aqua hatchery were also fully exempted from any import duty. The Basic Customs Duty (BCD) on essential aquafarm/ hatchery inputs such as Vannamei and black tiger broodstock, polychaete worms, and fish/shrim

Potato dispatches from Bengal up 35% day after traders withdraw strike

A day after West Bengal potato traders called off their indefinite strike, dispatch of tubers from cold storages surged by 30-35 per cent to fill the demand vacuum, officials said on Thursday. The traders' body said they would continue to adjust supplies in an effort to stabilise prices. "Since last night, around 8 lakh packets of 50kg each have been dispatched compared to the normal daily average of 6 lakh packets," said Progressive Potato Traders' Association secretary Lalu Mukherjee on Thursday. He assured the state government of adequate supply and asserted that traders would refrain from exporting the produce to other states for now, as the government has pledged to address local concerns first. Rabindranath Kole from the Traders Forum and a state task force member said, "The news of the strike withdrawal has led to some price reduction, but a significant decrease will be seen at the wholesale level, which hovered at Rs 34 per kg, once the produce hits the market in sufficient